Development of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling Health Inequalities

The HIA-IM (Developing a Health Impact Assessment Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling health Inequalities) project is co-hosted in UCC between the School of Public Health and ISS21. Dr Monica O’Mullane is the Principal Investigator on this four-year programme of research. Dr Tara Kenny is the postdoctoral researcher working on HIA-IM. Kirsty Nash worked as the research assistant on the project in 2024.  In 2025, Caithlín Sheehan, student research assistant, worked with the team on the HIA of the national Climate Action Plan (2024). In July 2025, Eibhlín Looney joined the team as Research Assistant on the TRANSLATE-HIA project, which is a knowledge translation project aligned with HIA-IM.

This project aims to strengthen intersectoral policy and practice in tackling health inequalities through the development of an enhanced HIA implementation model. Specifically, the implementation model will be developed by taking an action research methodological approach to the conduct of two HIAs in Ireland – one at a local policy level, addressing the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028), and a second at a national policy level, addressing the Irish Government’s Climate Action Plan (2024). A resource for engaging with communities in a HIA will also be created.

Project Funding & Dates

HIA-IM is funded by the Health Research Board Emerging Investigator for Health award held by Monica O’Mullane (grant number EIA-2022-001). The project runs from January 2023 to December 2027.

Project Team and Collaborators

HIA-IM includes colleagues from UCC including Professor Emeritus Ivan Perry, Dr Sheena McHugh, both from the School of Public Health. Dr Ger Mullally from the Department of Sociology & Criminology, and Professor Hannah Daly from the Environmental Research Institute and Director of the BSc Sustainability, UCC. Dr Joanna Purdy (Institute of Public Health Ireland), Professor Uduak Archibong (University of Bradford) and Dr Lisa Pursell (University of Galway) are members of the Steering Group with Sheena and Ger. Professor Katherine Smith (University of Strathclyde) and Professor Ivan Perry are mentors on the project.

Project collaborators include Bernie Connolly, Public Involvement collaborator (The Environmental Forum), Dr Ben Harris-Roxas (University of New South Wales), Dr Liz Green (Public Health Wales, HIA Support Unit), Ben Cave (BCA Insight Ltd), Karen O’Mahony (Cork City Council), Dr Ina Kelly (Health Service Executive Ireland- HSE), Dr Paul Kavanagh (Health Service Executive Ireland- HSE), Dr Sara Burke (Trinity College Dublin) and Tadhg O’Mahony (Environmental Protection Agency Ireland). A HIA-IM Public Involvement consultation group has been established for the project including Chair of the group, Bernie Connolly (The Environmental Forum), with Denise Cahill (Cork Healthy Cities), Hans Zomer (Global Action Plan), Karin Dubsky (Coast Watch Ireland), Nicola Meacle (Independent Living Group), and Colette Bennett (The Wheel).

TRANSLATE-HIA research team at “Getting Going with Health Impact Assessment” knowledge translation event November 6th 2025. (left to right) Eibhlín Looney, Dr Monica O'Mullane, Dr Tara Kenny.

Pictured: HIA-IM research team in UCC, 30^th September 2024. (Left to right) Kirsty Nash, Monica O’Mullane and Tara Kenny.

Publications

• O'Mullane, M.,  Kenny, T., Nash, K., McHugh, SM., Kavanagh, P., Smith, K. and Archibong, U. (2025)  ‘Development of a Health Impact Assessment Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling Health Inequalities-A Mixed Methods Study Protocol’ HRB Open Research Platform, 7, 14. DOI: 10.12688/hrbopenres.13873.3
• Kenny, T., Harris-Roxas, B., McHugh, S., Douglas, M., Green, L., Haigh, F., Purdy, J., Kavanagh, P., & O’Mullane, M. (2025). Routemap for health impact assessment implementation: scoping review using the consolidated framework for implementation research. Health Promotion International, 40(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaf080 
• O'Mullane, M., Kenny, T., Nash, K., Ryan, M., Fitzsimons, J., Connolly, B., Green, L., Purdy, J., Cave, B. and Harris-Roxas, B. (2025) Undertaking the first health impact assessment on a city development plan in Ireland: a case study. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal. DOI: 10.1080/14615517.2025.2590854

A HRB Knowledge Translation Award (TRANSLATE-HIA) is supporting the HIA-IM Project

Title: Translating knowledge on Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to strengthen Health in All Policies (TRANSLATE-HIA)

TRANSLATE-HIA supports the translation of findings to policy and practice from HIA-IM and a strengthening of integrated knowledge translation capacity. HIA-IM is developing an implementation model based on the process of doing HIAs on local and national policies. TRANSLATE-HIA will pave the way for implementing this model into practice to strengthen Health in All Policies in Ireland.

Project Funding & Dates

TRANSLATE-HIA is funded by the Health Research Board Knowledge Translation Award (grant number KTA-2024-009). The project runs for sixteen months, from December 2024 to April 2026. The purpose of TRANSLATE-HIA is to share learnings from the HIA-IM project and to boost the policy and practice impact of HIA-IM’s findings.

Project Team and Collaborators

Dr Monica O’Mullane (PI), Dr Tara Kenny (Postdoctoral Researcher), Eibhlín Looney, Research Assistant, Bernie Connolly (The Environmental Forum), Dr Joanna Purdy (Institute of Public Health, Ireland), Dr Ger Mullally, Dr Sheena McHugh (UCC), Dr Margaret Douglas (Public Health Scotland), Dr Diarmuid O’Donovan (Health Improvement, HSE), Vinnie O’Shea (Slaintecare Healthy Communities Programme), and Leonora McConville (Sligo County Council).

Project Events

First “Getting Going with Health Impact Assessment” Event in Ireland

On 6th November around 60 people attended the first “Getting Going with Health Impact Assessment” knowledge translation event across the island of Ireland. The event was held in UCC and hosted as part of the TRANSLATE-HIA project, funded under the HRB Knowledge Translation Award 2024 scheme. Attendees from the HSE, NGOs, local authorities, private sector, and academic settings listened to presentations from Karen O’Mahony (Cork City Council), Johnny Liu (London Borough of Tower Hamlets), Dr Margaret Douglas (Public Health Scotland), and Dr Liz Green (Public Health Wales). A discussion session followed, facilitated by Denise Cahill, Coordinator of WHO Cork Healthy Cities. Professor Ella Arensman opened the event and Dr Monica O’Mullane presented an overview of HIA in Ireland, the purpose of HIA-IM project, along with implementation science informed findings. In the afternoon a World Café, facilitated by members of the TRANSLATE-HIA team, was held. Contributions from the World Café will inform the upcoming “Getting Going with HIA” Informational Resource.

News:

https://www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/newsandevents/first-getting-going-with-health-impact-assessment-event-in-ireland.html

Recordings from “Getting Going with Health Impact Assessment” Event:

• Karen O'Mahony: https://media.heanet.ie/page/59b0be339f5c458d80cb7e927a119e18
• Johnny Lui: https://media.heanet.ie/page/cc78db3f4efe445a814d2ae0e978d438
• Dr Margaret Douglas: https://media.heanet.ie/page/e5313fce99ef4a2da32254bc048931b7
• Dr Liz Green: https://media.heanet.ie/page/d5dc955e6b5b4c63bce0232a8a3e868a

Reports from HIA-IM

HIA on the Core Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028)

• O'Mullane, M., Kenny, T., Nash, K., Ryan, M., O'Mahony, K. and Fitzsimons, J. (2024) 'Report of the Health Impact Assessment on the Core Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028)'. Cork: University College Cork. https://hdl.handle.net/10468/16851
• Nash, K. and O'Mullane, M. (2024) 'Report on the public engagement event for the HIA on the Core Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028)'. Cork: University College Cork. https://hdl.handle.net/10468/16818
• O'Mullane, M., Kenny, T., Nash, K., Ryan, M., O'Mahony, K. and Fitzsimons, J. (2024) 'Core Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan (CCDP) (2022-2028): a health impact assessment briefing'. Cork: University College Cork. https://cora.ucc.ie/items/15895306-7029-4177-851e-5a8736ac42af

Recorded webinars

• 6^th May 2025: A webinar on the HIA on the Core Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) was held on Tuesday 6^th May (12.00-13.00) co-hosted by the School of Public Health and ISS21. Speakers at the webinar included Dr Monica O’Mullane (UCC), Dr Mary O’Mahony (HSE) and Karen O’Mahony (Strategic Planning, Cork City Council). The recording to the webinar is at this link: Webinar 6th May 2025.  Suggested citation for the webinar recording: O'Mullane, M., O'Mahony, M., and O'Mahony, K. (2025) ‘A Health Impact Assessment on the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) - Reflections on the Process.’ Cork, Ireland University College Cork

Published project conference abstracts

2024:

• Kenny, T., M. O’Mullane, K. Nash, B. Harris-Roxas, P. Kavanagh, S. McHugh, and L. Green. 2024. 'Realising the health benefits of a City Development Plan in Ireland: The process and influence of HIA', European Journal of Public Health, 34
• Nash, K., T. Kenny, M. O’Mullane, and B. Harris-Roxas. 2024. 'Developing a community engagement toolkit for health impact assessment in Ireland', European Journal of Public Health, 34

2023:

• O'Mullane, M, J Purdy, L Pursell, U Archibong, and S McHugh. (2023) 'A theoretical framework for developing a health impact assessment implementation model in Ireland', European Journal of Public Health, 33.

Media articles related to the project

Power, Amy (2024) ‘Public asked to share ‘lived experience’ in Cork city health impact assessment’, 16^th April 2024. Evening Echo. https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41375170.html

Researcher Vacancies

There are currently no vacancies on the project.

Contact

For more information on HIA-IM, please contact Monica O'Mullane (m.omullane@ucc.ie).

Project Logo

Many thanks to Stuart Coughlan (edit+) for the project logo.

Updated December 2025